34 DR. BABASAHEB AMBEDKAR : WRITINGS AND SPEECHES
Taking into account the period between 1792 to 1857 Mr. Romesh Chandra Dutt says, “It will be seen that if there were fourteen years of deficit, there were thirty-two years of surplus; and if the deficit amounted altogether to nearly seventeen millions the surplus amounted to nearly forty-nine millions. The net financial results of Indian administration was therefore a surplus of thirty-two millions during forty-six years. But this money was not saved in India, nor devoted to irrigation or other works of improvement. It went as a continuous tribute to England to pay dividends to the Company’s shareholders; and as the flow of the money from India was not sufficient to pay the dividends, there was an increasing debt called the Public Debt of India.” [1. R. C. Dutt. “India under Early British Rule.” p. 408.]
There were two distinct ways in which loans were raised in England and in India.
In India when the government was in need of money it advertized that the Treasury was open to receive money upon loan at certain rates specified in the advertisement and upon the conditions there contained. So long as the loans remained open, parties were admitted to make what payments they pleased, and to receive what are called loan notes in acknowledgment, and these to any amount. The money raised on loan was all raised in India.
In England a different mode operated. The only mode, it was so stipulated by the Parliament, by which the East India Company was able to raise loan there was analogous to that of other corporations viz. on bonds, and all the Home debt was raised on bonds.
The Public Debt of India, at least under the Company’s rule was entirely the creation of war.
We will follow the progress of these two debts separately.
The Indian Debt
In 1792 the Indian Debt was a little over £7,000,000 : within seven years it had risen to £10,000,000. In 1800 it was £
14,625,384 carrying a total interest of £ 1,342,854. Now came the wars of Wellesely with the Marathas and in one sweep he